The spirit of Hiram Perkins might be returning to do some stargazing beyond the grave.

At least that's what Burns, a professor of astronomy and English at Ohio Wesleyan University, tells the folks that come to tour the building and to gaze upon the stars.

The Perkins Observatory, north of Columbus and about a 21/2-hour drive from Cincinnati, features the largest public telescope in Ohio. In operation since 1923, the same year that Perkins died, Ohio Wesleyan offers daytime and evening programs that give visitors glimpses of the universe through its 32-inch Schottland reflecting telescope, or one of the smaller varieties sitting on the front lawn.

Daytime programs, by reservation only, offer spectacular views of the sun through portable telescopes that separate incoming light so that observers safely can see its filaments, strings and lacy details.

Daytime and evening visitors can enjoy a tour of the domed building, as well as hands-on exhibits, a museum and an opportunity to see awesome photographs of celestial objects.

The artist in any visitor will appreciate a spectacular outdoor archway that embraces stonework depicting Apollo and his horse, as well as the etched names of astronomy's great ones along the upper edge of the exterior walls.

The building's basement houses a dark room that provides visitors with a three-dimensional sensation that they're residing in the recesses of galactic space. Other features include a remote rover, which kids maneuver over a Martian surface, and a seismograph, which can pick up an earthquake across the world.

The staff presents a slide show and offers the opportunity to use computers as virtual images of the universe, while the likes of Hiram Perkins, captured in a large oil painting, oversees the evening.

Perkins, a son of a pig farmer, dreamed and saved all his life for the construction of a large observatory that would have academic and recreational value for generations to come. He died at age 90, before seeing its fruition.

"Our job is to show visitors how magnificent the universe is," said Burns, who wears striped suspenders to demonstrate the colors of the light spectrum. He teaches kids that stars may be more powerful than they are, but they don't know that they're stars.

"(Humans) are the mind of the universe," he said.

Perkins Observatory programs are appropriate for anyone over age 5 and are limited to 90 people.

Evening programs usually are Friday and Saturday. Fees: $4-$6 per person.

Information and reservations: (740) 363-1257; perkins-observatory.org.